Kendrick Lamar and SZA Settle “All The Stars” Lawsuit

Prominent Top Dawg Entertainment artists Kendrick Lamar and SZA have settled a lawsuit with British-Liberian visual artist Lina Iris Victor over the music video for “All The Stars.” According to Pitchfork, the case was settled as of December 21st and the original case and claims by Victor will be dismissed.

Earlier this year Victor claimed that parts of her “Constellation,” visual art series were appropriated during a brief 19 second clip for the music video. This clip allegedly began at the 2:59 mark for the video, which is included down below.

Victior’s “Constellation,” series utilizes a variety of black and gold textures, which she argued were directly appropriated during the clip from that video. She had also claimed in a Facebook post that she was “seeking justice,” for this infringement. The artist has also made numerous exhibitions across the world with this artwork.

In an article by the New York Times, Victor also claimed she was approached by Marvel Studios to help work on the film Black Panther, but declined the offer. “All The Stars,” was one of the main singles from the film’s soundtrack.

Lamar and SZA both asked a judge to block the lawsuit earlier this year, in order to prevent the artist from receiving any of the profits from the track. The court statement’s released on the defendant’s behalf asserted that “the worldwide popularity of Lamar, his music, and earlier videos; the worldwide popularity of [SZA], her music, and earlier videos,” were responsible for the track’s success, as opposed to the visuals.

Lamar was also immensely successful in the Grammy’s garnering eight nominations for his involvement with “All The Stars,” and The Black Panther Soundtrack. Earlier this year the rapper also won a Pulitzer Prize in music for his work with his 2017 album DAMN, becoming the first hip hop artist in history to ever win the award.

“It was one of those things I heard about in school, but I never thought I’d be a part of it. [When I heard I got it], I thought, to be recognized in an academic world…whoa, this thing really can take me above and beyond. It’s one of those things that should have happened with hip-hop a long time ago,” Kendrick explained in a Vanity Fair interview. “It took a long time for people to embrace us — people outside of our community, our culture — to see this not just as vocal lyrics, but to see that this is really pain, this is really hurt, this is really true stories of our lives on wax.”